UNDERVIEW

Solving Baguio garbage problem
MIKE GUIMBATAN JR.

When balloons were released to let go of the grim experience when the city was devastated from the July 16, 1990 Killer Quake, another disaster struck the city. But this time it is man-made and politically induced – the garbage crisis.

During the 1990 earthquake, nobody was blamed because it is a natural calamity except maybe for some degree of moral decay that might have stirred supernatural powers to awaken us. But lessons were learned from the catastrophe. Baguio did not depend on external help to survive and recover.

Ordinary people and resident businessmen came out of the street to lend a hand to strangers that need help while visitors and non-Baguio businessmen were first to run out of the city. In the end, it was the people of Baguio that helped themselves to recovery.

In today’s man-made disaster, we are trying to solve the problem by hiring an outsider to collect and dispose our garbage elsewhere. It was a spur of the moment decision to dispel social unrest and to maintain political power. It was a decision to appease the national government and the tourism industry. It was also a decision to protect the interest of hotels and restaurants catering to their clients mostly visitors.

As a matter of fact, residential areas that houses majority residents are secondary priority in garbage collection because the central business district should first be served. What an irony that the people of Baguio are treated second class in favor of visitors and tourists.

Our policy makers and executives forgot the reality that it is not tourism that sustains the business life of the city but the residents and the students that comprise three fourth of the transient population of the city.

John Hay and Country club can not save Baguio in any kind of disaster because their priorities are their financial gains in the same way as astute politicians prioritize the power and the glory of the position they occupy.

Let us briefly discussing the cost-benefit of the present garbage disposal strategy. At a daily reduced garbage production of 150 tons where an outsider is contracted to dispose at a cost of P5, 000 per ton that would be P750, 000 expenditure a day for garbage.

If plain stupidity will allow the arrangement to extend for a year, that would cost the city P270 million. This amount is already 33 percent of the approved 2008 annual city budget of P820 million. It is financially insane to allow such an arrangement considering that the city can only earn as much as P14 million annually from garbage fee services.

Even if the council members passed the ordinance declaring Baguio in a state of calamity in order to justify the use of the calamity fund, the only available amount as per budget is P39, 245,000. That is only good for 52 days. What if a real calamity struck the city?

New garbage management technologies maybe available, but the city government failed to plan and incorporate it in the budget. What has been implemented so far are study tours local and abroad among local policy makers and executives? We lament that their trip never bear any fruit.

There was poor foresight and practical planning For example; there was no capital outlay proposal for the purchase and relocation of a landfill either an engineered or a sanitary landfill. What has been allocated in the capital outlay are Sewage treatment plant, comfort rooms, school buildings and health centers, Information Technology equipment and police cars, based on the 2008 budget. This means that the only available budget for garbage management is the P94.5 million budget of Environment and parks maintenance but over half of it is intended for salaries.

Nevertheless, the garbage disposal problem is unavoidable in highly urbanized cities like Baguio but it is unforgivable if city leadership did not prepare for it. The mounting consumer products in the city has mutated into monster garbage.

But nobody can save Baguio from this man-made calamity except the people of Baguio themselves. For example, it is better to segregate at household before dumping rather than the present practice of dumping then segregating. Every individual in the city has a role to play. We will discuss that next week. -- mikeguimbatan@gmail.com